In the process of cleaning up my desk and purging my files over the holidays, I found notes from four Walla Walla, Washington, wineries that we visited in October on the same weekend we took our vineyard tour with Rich Funk of Saviah Cellars. These four were wineries that we had not had a chance […]

On a recent Saturday, the Wine Peeps attended tastings at two local wine shops. Mom (LaGayle) and Dad (John) attended the Ross Andrew tasting at McCarthy & Schiering in Seattle’s Ravenna neighborhood and then I joined them for the Stephenson Cellars, Otis Kenyon, and Five Star Cellars tasting at Pete’s Wine Shop in Bellevue. Ross […]

Last month, I posted on Super Bargain Wines for Tough Times, which by our definition are wines with a price less than or equal to $10, of excellent quality (4-star quality or higher), and its price is less than or equal to one-half of wines of the same varietal and the same quality level (5 […]

Fielding Hills Winery is a small, family-owned winery located in Wenatchee, Washington. Owner/winemaker Mike Wade and his wife Karen are longtime apple and cherry growers who have turned a middle portion of their orchard near Mattawa into a vineyard. Their Riverbend Vineyard, planted in 1998, is in the warm Wahluke Slope AVA. Strictly red wine […]

For those of you who have never been, Leavenworth, Washington, is a quaint and beautiful Bavarian Village nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in the heart of the state. No matter the season, it is a great get-away tourist destination. And in recent years, it has also become a destination for wine lovers […]

As gas prices climb higher and higher and your employer balks at that long-overdue pay raise, have you started looking for wines on sale at reasonable prices? Sure you have, but remember there is a big difference between a cheap wine and a bargain wine. A wine is only a bargain if it’s a good […]

We recently spent a long weekend in the Columbia Valley visiting a number of wineries, some we had visited years ago and others we had not previously visited. The Columbia Valley, established in 1984, is Washington State’s largest AVA (American Viticultural Area). Six other AVAs are located within the borders of the Columbia Valley AVA, […]

Even though Mom (LaGayle) and Dad (John) were recently in Walla Walla as a part of their two month cross-country road trip (see Dad’s previous Walla Walla posts: Day 1 and Day 2), all of us Wine Peeps recently spent a weekend in the Walla Walla Valley visiting some wineries that Mom and Dad missed […]

The wine industry around Chelan, Washington, is relatively new, with a mixture of what I call “foo-foo” wineries and serious winemakers. The tourist industry in the area will probably keep the former in business, while I’m interested to see how the serious winemakers progress as their vineyards mature and they see what works and doesn’t […]

As our road trip took us to Spokane, Washington, we tried to visit a representative sampling of wineries in the Spokane area. Our first stop was at Latah Creek Winery. Latah Creek, owned by Mike Conway and his wife, has been in business 26 years and produces about 15,000 cases per year. Our friendly hostess, […]